Daily News, June 27

This Friday's pick is for singer Kate McGarry, due to drop a new CD in August featuring a surprisingly gorgeous cover of The Cars' "Just What I Needed." She unfortunately drops the verse repeat with the wonderfully inexplicable "time, time" lyric, though.

Metro, June 23-27

On Wednesday, my email interview with Rickie Lee Jones, just in time for the second of her three-week residency at the Painted Bride. Also note the [shudder] tiny image of my head on the byline. On Friday, a piece on PIMA Bingo, the annual fundraiser for dancer/choreographer Melisa Putz' PIMA Group; and a brief history of Sand Castle Winery, the rare good producer of vino in PA, on the event of the 20th anniversary of their first sold bottle of wine.

Citypaper, June 26

This week: A feature on the first annual Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, happening this weekend in NoLibs; a review of the Matthew Broderick/Brittany Snow semi-comedy Finding Amanda; a Soundadvice blurb for the Brubeck Brothers at Chris' Jazz Cafe; and a pick for historian Robert Schlesinger, author of the recent history of presidential speechwriters, White House Ghosts, appearing at the National Constitution Center.

Daily News, June 16-20

This week, my yearly feature on the West Oak Lane Jazz and Arts Festival, now in its fifth year. And on Friday, a pick for same - what can I say? The Daily News is a major sponsor.

Citypaper, June 19

This week: A feature on dancer/choreographer Zornitsa Stoyanova's evening -length piece, "Point of No Return"; a brief piece on Brothers Unconnected, the Bishop brothers' tribute show to their lamented fellow Sun City Girl, Charles Gocher; a sidebar overview of I-House's Jerzy Skolimowski retrospective; and a review of the Young Genghis Khan epic Mongol.

Daily News, June 13

This Friday, just a pick for this year's impressive Cliffore Brown Jazz Festival line-up down in Wilmington.

Citypaper, June 12

This week: A piece on this year's 21st Lawn Chair Drive-In series, kicked off by the wonderfully bizarre Phantom of the Paradise; a review of the straight-laced inspirational dross The Children of Huang Shi; and a Soundadvice plug for what turned out to be a very odd Sonny Simmons/Bobby Few duo gig at Art Alliance, with Sonny crooning some half-remembered lyrics to "It Was a Very Good Year."

Daily News, June 6

This week, just a pick for World Cafe's "Giants of Gypsy Jazz II", in which I got to slip in a reference to Woody Allen's last good film, Sweet and Lowdown.

Metro, June 2-6

This week, at least as far as Metros that have shown up online: a piece on "Benjamin Franklin Frankly", a musical biography of the Founding Father by Princeton-based composer Clive Muncaster. Bunch more last week, including an interview with ex-Door John Densmore that I found pretty entertaining, but none of 'em have been posted.

Citypaper, June 5

This week, I made the cover of CP, with my long-in-the-works story about the long-forgotten 1972 Philly-shot horror film Malatesta's Carnival of Blood. Also, keeping in the horror vein, a review of the tragically awful conclusion to Dario Argento's Three Mothers trio, Mother of Tears, and another for Kung Fu Panda. I may never live down the fact that I gave a better review to a Jack Black cartoon than an Argento film.

Daily News, May 26-30

This week: an interview with ex-Philadelphian Benjamin Wallace, author of the wine and Jefferson-related (and therefore, specifically targeted to me) new book The Billionaire's Vinegar; and a pick for local vocalist Joanna Pascale.

Citypaper, May 29

This week: a feature on local artist Zoe Cohen's "Show Someone How You Feel About Something" project; a Soundadvice pick for vocalist Grazyna Auguscik; and reviews for Tarsem's overindulgent The Fall, the Liv Tyler horror grind The Strangers, and the French Bond spoof OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.

Daily News, May 19-23

This week, a story on The Rotunda's recent mural project, Collective Imprints, with a sidebar history of the venue; and a pick for the Oliver Lake/Andrew Cyrille/Reggie Workman supergroup Trio 3, at the Art Museum.

Metro, May 19-23

This week: An interview with clown/actor Bill Irwin, prepping his new show The Happiness Lecture at PTC.

Citypaper, May 22

This week, a short Q&A with Matt Davis about his year-long Aerial Photograph music-doc project, combining samples of interviews with Philly residents and music based on them; a pick for the Polish Marcin Wasilewski Trio, aka Tomasz Stanko's young backing band; and Soundadvice mentions for Nemeth and Efterklang. Plus, a generally happy review of the new Indiana Jones flick.

Daily News, May 16

This week, simply a pick for local vocalist Pearl Williams, enjoying a tribute show at LaRose.

Metro, May 12-16

Just one this week: an email interview with creepy magician and suspected rapist (though that doesn't come up) David Copperfield. Ugh.

Citypaper, May 15

This week's CP film section was all about the Troma, and features my review of the schlock-factory's latest, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, and my interview with head honcho Lloyd Kaufman. On the other end of the spectrum, a review of Merchant-Ivory's letst product, Before the Rains. Also: Soundadvice mentions for the metal/jazz double-bill of KTL and Beta Popes, and the inaugural edition of the new avant-jazz Sci-Fi Sessions, and an Artspick for Mascher Space Co-op's findraising Funstival.